Two-sided cooking apparatus or clamshell cooking systems are capable of simultaneously cooking two sides of various food products, such as, hamburger patties, sausage patties, chicken, or other foodstuffs. Clamshell cooking systems are often utilized in the fast-food industry because they reduce the overall cooking time associated with the foodstuffs, such as, frozen hamburger patties, and the amount of operator attention required for cooking the foodstuffs.
The clamshell cooking system generally includes an upper cooking plate or platen and a lower cooking plate or platen. The upper cooking platen is coupled to a platen support arm for swinging movement between a lower cooking position overlying the lower cooking platen and a raised position inclined upwardly from the lower cooking platen. The upper cooking platen can be manually or automatically moved between the lower cooking position and the raised stand-by position. The lower cooking position can be adjusted for various sizes and thicknesses of foodstuffs.
The upper cooking platen generally has a smaller area than the lower cooking platen. The lower cooking platen has a larger area so that other foods which do not require two-sided cooking can be simultaneously cooked, while other foodstuffs are cooked between the upper and lower platens. Furthermore, the additional area provided by the lower cooking platen can still be utilized to cook foodstuffs when the upper platen is in the raised position. For example, the lower cooking platen can be used to warm buns or rolls or to fry eggs, onions, potatoes, meats, or other foodstuffs. Thus, a two-sided cooking area is located between the upper cooking platen and the lower cooking platen when the upper cooking platen is in the lower cooking position. At the same time, a one-sided cooking area outside the two-sided cooking area is always located on the lower cooking platen, regardless of the position of the upper cooking platen.
When cooking foodstuffs between the upper cooking platen and the lower cooking platen, the operator must place the foodstuffs within the two-sided cooking area on the lower platen (e.g., beneath the upper platen when the upper platen is in the lower cooking position). This operation can be somewhat difficult when the operator is trying to place as many foodstuffs as can fit in the two-sided cooking area. If the operator accidently places the foodstuffs outside of the two-sided cooking area, the food stuff may not be cooked properly.
Heretofore, the two-sided cooking area on the lower platen was marked by sandblasting a pattern on the top surface of the lower cooking platen. The sandblasting operation removes a portion of the top surface to make a mark in the sheen of the lower platen. However, the sandblasted pattern is susceptible to wear due to the scraping associated with removing foodstuffs from the grill with a spatula or other utensil. Additionally, the sandblasted pattern can be worn by scrubbing operations associated with the cleaning of the lower platen.
Thus, there is a need for a marking for a two-sided operation which is not susceptible to wear. Further, there is a need for a lower cooking platen which has a durable marking outlining the periphery of the upper cooking platen.